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Re: The OotS Soundtrack Project

Ok, so it's quite messy at the moment, nowhere near finished, but I've been working on a little piece called the Battle for Azure City, and I'd like some advice to help me tighten it up a little bit please, as right now it's biggest flaw is that it's a bit rambling. Anyone got feedback?

EDIT: Quarion, I've no idea what it could be for, but I know I love it. That's some really phenomenal work!

Re: The OotS Soundtrack Project

Sounds like an exotic form of jazz fusion. I can sense some heavy funk influence, especially in the drums and electric bass, and a hint of Latin in the trumpet's phrasing and the acoustic bass solo, but other than that, I wouldn't know what to call it. Then again, I play/listen to a lot of jazz, and when all you have is a hammer...Whatever it might end up being, it sounds fantastic and is absolutely addictive. (I've listened to it about four times while composing this post...)

Anyways, the Battle for Azure City is coming along nicely, and though it does sound a bit rambling, you could easily make what you have work, as long as you make it interesting enough. That is my main critique here - as a musical person, all I see are the chords, but they don't appear to have much movement or direction. As such, people will easily get bored with it. Sure, there are a few interesting parts scattered here and there (most notably measures 15-22 and 31-32) but overall, there isn't enough going on to really grab my interest. Try adding some fast-moving texture to spice things up a bit, or perhaps varying the rhythms to something more interesting than quarter-quarter-quarter-quarter. You could also rework it to give a clearer overall melodic line so everyone will have something to pay attention to besides the chord progression.

Right now, a nonmusical person might say, "Nothing's happening!" and a musical person might say, "Okay, I see your chords and themes, but what are you going to do with them?" This is the theme music for a battle to decide the fate of the world, right? Unless you're still composing the introduction and your full intention is to make the audience itch for something to happen, it doesn't feel like there's enough going on. You have five instruments in this arrangement, and by no means is there a limit to how many of those can be playing different things at once. Don't be afraid to assign complicated or difficult parts to different instruments - we don't have actual players assigned yet, so there's no one to complain about it. (By the way, I would like to say that this song sounds hilarious when played back at 200 bpm.)

ANV sounds MUCH better, by the way. All the problems I mentioned in my last post about it are pretty much fixed now.

Re: The OotS Soundtrack Project

One of those wonderful times when the best response to a piece of music is "Awww, yeah." Two things occur to me- firstly, the grace notes in the trumpet are a bit distracting, and I don't see them adding much to the piece. Maybe keep a few for variety's sake, but as is it's just a bit weird. Secondly, just as a comment, I think that this piece would probably sound best if it were synthesized vs. played. Not that it matters, since it's synthesized right now, but this is definitely closer to herbie hancock than miles davis.

Re: The OotS Soundtrack Project

Does anyone mind if I borrow some bits and pieces from their music, specifically from the character themes? It would help tie the separate pieces together, and considering how long it's already going to take for me to arrange the 40+ comics I have left before finishing the Elan/Nale project, it will save me the time and effort of inventing a bunch of tag melodies for each character for when they enter the scene. I'm not going to blatantly copy-paste anything, but I might end up borrowing a measure or two of the melody, putting it on a different melodic instrument, and grafting it into what I already have.

Re: The OotS Soundtrack Project

Originally Posted by Alagaesian

Does anyone mind if I borrow some bits and pieces from their music, specifically from the character themes? It would help tie the separate pieces together, and considering how long it's already going to take for me to arrange the 40+ comics I have left before finishing the Elan/Nale project, it will save me the time and effort of inventing a bunch of tag melodies for each character for when they enter the scene. I'm not going to blatantly copy-paste anything, but I might end up borrowing a measure or two of the melody, putting it on a different melodic instrument, and grafting it into what I already have.

Re: The OotS Soundtrack Project

Originally Posted by Alagaesian

Does anyone mind if I borrow some bits and pieces from their music, specifically from the character themes? It would help tie the separate pieces together, and considering how long it's already going to take for me to arrange the 40+ comics I have left before finishing the Elan/Nale project, it will save me the time and effort of inventing a bunch of tag melodies for each character for when they enter the scene. I'm not going to blatantly copy-paste anything, but I might end up borrowing a measure or two of the melody, putting it on a different melodic instrument, and grafting it into what I already have.

I wouldn't if I was actually still working on mine through Noteflight. When I was working through Noteflight I thought it would be pretty cool if different themes and sections were used throughout related pieces. I even experimented adding in a few other themes and liked the results. I've always liked soundtracks that do this. It gives the overall work a unified feeling.

Re: The OotS Soundtrack Project

Originally Posted by Quarion Nailo

Which pieces specifically are we talking about?

My actually-concrete plans were to vaguely reference Roy's Theme a few times in his fight against Sabine and use two measures of Thog's as a sort of joke farther down the road. Also, I was asking this question in advance to any people who might be secretly working on a Haley/Durkon/Belkar's theme. Especially with Haley, I might have to completely invent her musical identity to properly incorporate her into my piece, and I don't want to step on anyone's toes if they're already working on her.

Re: The OotS Soundtrack Project

Originally Posted by Alagaesian

My actually-concrete plans were to vaguely reference Roy's Theme a few times in his fight against Sabine and use two measures of Thog's as a sort of joke farther down the road. Also, I was asking this question in advance to any people who might be secretly working on a Haley/Durkon/Belkar's theme. Especially with Haley, I might have to completely invent her musical identity to properly incorporate her into my piece, and I don't want to step on anyone's toes if they're already working on her.

I'm not so subtly working on Belkar's Concerto for Piccolo with Strings, Organ and Brass.

Just finished the first movement, Mortem Incarnatus.
I'll get the leitmotif on midi posted since the theme itself is unhearable in midi format and I'd much rather finish everything before recording it.

Re: The OotS Soundtrack Project

Originally Posted by araveugnitsuga

I'm not so subtly working on Belkar's Concerto for Piccolo with Strings, Organ and Brass.

Just finished the first movement, Mortem Incarnatus.
I'll get the leitmotif on midi posted since the theme itself is unhearable in midi format and I'd much rather finish everything before recording it.

Does it end with the Pccolo violently murdering the strings and brass?

Also, I plan on using parts of head-to-head in Roy's Theme and maybbe p[arts of Thor for Durkon.

Re: The OotS Soundtrack Project

...It took me a few moments, but I realized that "Mortem Incarnatus" probably translates to "Death Incarnate." I am a firm believer that any instrument can operate within wide range of styles, but hearing a piccolo concerto of Belkar should still be interesting.

Unfortunately for me, the only Sticktales I will probably ever own is Haleo and Julelan, and even if I do end up with its PDF sometime in the near future and decide to put something together for it, I probably won't get around to doing anything with it until after I finish the Elan/Nale project that doesn't currently have any name because there aren't any definitive arc words/phrases for it.

Re: The OotS Soundtrack Project

Originally Posted by Alagaesian

My actually-concrete plans were to vaguely reference Roy's Theme a few times in his fight against Sabine and use two measures of Thog's as a sort of joke farther down the road. Also, I was asking this question in advance to any people who might be secretly working on a Haley/Durkon/Belkar's theme. Especially with Haley, I might have to completely invent her musical identity to properly incorporate her into my piece, and I don't want to step on anyone's toes if they're already working on her.

Re: The OotS Soundtrack Project

Something tells me that Thog's actually theme isn't going to be the jazz fusion you whipped up. It sounds a bit too funky for Thog, even though it's my favorite of all the things composed so far on this thread. Also, after taking a closer look at it, I've discovered that the trumpet part is very playable, almost trumpet-friendly, though I suppose the basses might complain about the number of flats involved in the key signature.

Re: The OotS Soundtrack Project

*whistles* O-Chul is taking a very, very long time. Who'd a thunk that writing for him would be so hard? I've got it up to... 00:57 so far. Screw it, I'm just going to post my draft here and hope that the comments will give me inspiration.

As to why I'm not using noteflight... this song sounds terrible on it. If you enter it into noteflight for viewing purposes, I advise against playing it. Also, the instrumentation thus far is Alto Trombone, Tenor Trombone, and Euphonium.

Re: The OotS Soundtrack Project

So, I've been working on Durkon's Theme, but I'm not sure if it is long enough, because its ~30 measures, not including repeats. Also, I am not sure if I like my instrumentation (Trombone, Dulcimer, Bagpipes, Timpani, and Violin)

(Unsubtle nudge)Quarion Nailo, can you put Miko's Theme and a New Vaarsuvius in the OP?

Re: The OotS Soundtrack Project

For some reason, I can't think of any super-good fits for it. This probably has something to do with the fact that I've never really connected OotS with this style of music before. If anything, I'd say it best fits being a theme for either Sandsedge or the Azure City new year, for some reason.

Also, if this was going to eventually be performed, I would suggest playing the electric bass as a synthesized keyboard part. It would still give the same general feel if you tuned the synth just right, with the added bonus of being playable. (If those super-high notes are playable on an actual electric bass in practice, then forget I said anything.)

Re: The OotS Soundtrack Project

I've always liked music; I think this project is a great idea. I've even hopped on and did just a tiny bit. Combined, my works are about 20 seconds long. I'd think it a reasonable amount after half an hour of exploration.

Re: The OotS Soundtrack Project

After much consideration from the comments (and a little head-scratching), I decided to submit my guitar-piano piece as "Pulling the Strings", though if anyone can give a better name, I'll be glad to hear it

Also: I've run out of NoteFlight space. I have finally hit the 10 score limit

As such, for my 10th score, I decided to come up with something epic*. And, as with my other pieces, I still need deciding where it should go. I was briefly considering the whole deal with the snarl being imprisoned, peaceful for a time, but then the fight begins again, but I'll prefer to hear what you guys think first

Re: The OotS Soundtrack Project

Your epic piece does indeed sound epic. It does a very good job of passing the melody around different parts and makes good use of counter-melodies and active accompaniment. It sounds like something I might listen to as a video game or movie score - engaging, but not intrusive.

I have two critiques on this, however. The first is to add a few light touches of accompaniment to the piano solo in bars 21-29. You don't even have to do much, just a sprinkle of left-hand piano or something to add a dash of texture to remind the audience where the downbeat is and where the chord progression is going. You wouldn't need it if the solo was less than around 6 bars long, but since it lasts a bit longer than that, the energy you've built up to this point will dissipate somewhat unless you put in a bit of texture to keep the audience engaged.

The second critique is one word: dynamics. Sure, layering different parts together often gives a natural boost to the dynamic level, but I can really see this piece coming alive with the addition of some variation from the standard mezzo-forte. Crescendos and decrescendos would also add quite a bit to this piece, but sadly, the playback on Noteflight likes to ignore them. If you want this piece to eventually be played by humans, however, you should seriously consider putting them in anyways.

EDIT: Also, I have tried watching this in both page view and strip view. Neither scrolls along with the playback properly.
EDIT2: Now that I'm thinking about it, sounds like it could make a good Order of the Scribble theme. The tense and foreboding beginning represents the Snarl starting to come through into the world (in five different instruments places, no less). The Order of the Scribble forms around bar 30, and they have some good times adventuring and making friends with each other. I imagine Soon's theme to be in bars 55-68, and Girard's in 69-80, both displaying some minor chords and tension while displaying different tones and styles that are somewhat incompatible with each other. Then, the Scribble's argument begins in 83 and grows darker and more violent until you reach the point of no return and the piece ends with the Scribbles suddenly breaking up.